Student Internships

Invest in Your Future: Paid Internship in Environmental & Energy Justice

The Western Environmental Science Technical Assistance Center for Environmental Justice (WEST EJ Center) is an Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center (TCTAC) that builds the capacity of organizations through free hands-on help, training, resources, and support to tackle environmental or energy justice challenges faced by communities in American Samoa, Arizona, California, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Hawai'i, and Nevada, including Native American Tribes and Indigenous communities in these areas.

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Overview

Student Internships

Are you interested in gaining paid experience in environmental and energy justice?  The goal of this internship is to provide students with hands-on environmental and energy justice (EEJ) experience under the mentorship of organizations already doing this work in the WEST EJ Center’s service area. Students are required to identify an organization and establish a project independently.

Students will be required to work a minimum of 180 hours with any organization working in the environmental or energy justice space. See the FAQs for more details. They can work full-time or part-time and on site or remote, as determined by the student and supervisor.  Organizations can only host one intern at a time. Priority will be given to organizations who have never hosted an intern. Please reach out to us at  WESTEJ-Center@arizona.edu if you need help finding an organization that has not yet hosted an intern. 

You must receive a formal acceptance from our team and complete the onboarding process before your hours will count towards your internship requirement.

Mapping Environmental and Energy Justice Data

The WEST EJ Center will provide the intern with a stipend, where students will apply their environmental and energy justice knowledge and skills under the mentorship of their internship supervisor. Selected students will receive a total of $5,000 after they submit their 250-500 word reflection of their experience, a feedback survey, and a digital story presentation of their final report. Students have up to a year to complete the internship, although most students may choose to complete their experience over a summer. The work hours will depend on internship goals determined by WEST EJ Center and the applicant and partnering organization. Students are expected to connect with an internship organization committed to environmental and/or energy justice on their own before applying, however, if you need help finding an organization to intern with, please contact the WEST EJ Center via e-mail or by telephone at: WESTEJ-Center@arizona.edu, (877) 518-4634.

 

Eligibility Requirements

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Age
Participants must be 18 years of age or older
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Education
Must have a high school diploma or General Education Development (GED)
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Student Status
Must be a currently enrolled student (undergrad or graduate) from an accredited institution in the United States (US)
  • Community college
  • Technical college
  • Tribal college
  • University
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Citizenship
Students must be US citizens, US nationals, or foreign nationals with a visa permitting permanent residence in the US. Students on temporary or student visas are not eligible to receive these stipends.
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School Status
Students must be enrolled in their school throughout the course of their project. Students that have already graduated from their program will not be considered.
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Region
The organization hosting the student intern must be in American Samoa, Arizona, California, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Hawai'i, and Nevada, including Native American Tribes and Indigenous communities in these areas, although students can work remotely outside this area if approved by the internship supervisor.
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Organization
Students are required to identify an organization and establish a project independently. An organization for this current opportunity can be any organization completing work in the environmental or energy justice space. Examples include but are not limited to non-profits, community-based organizations, local, state, and tribal governments.
 

Application Process

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Step 1:
Secure your internship

Find and contact the organization that you are interested in working with to do work in the Pacific Southwest (American Samoa, Arizona, California, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Hawai'i, and Nevada, including Native American Tribes and Indigenous communities in these areas). If you need help finding an organization to intern with, please contact the WEST EJ Center at WESTEJ-Center@arizona.edu, (877) 518-4634. When talking with the organization, be sure to confirm they agree to general terms of your internship, including:

  • start and end dates
  • total number of hours
  • the general internship or project goal
  • environmental or energy justice challenges the organization seeks to address
  • community(ies) the organization serves
  • objectives you plan to accomplish and activities you’ll undertake to meet objectives
You will need to complete this information in the application itself, so agreeing to these points with your internship mentor or supervisor before applying is critical.

Click here to view a PDF version of the application before beginning yours.

 
 

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Step 2:
Apply online

Once you have agreement on the items from Step 1 with your internship site, submit your application through our portal. The application can be completed in English or Spanish.

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Step 3:
Application review

We will seek to review all applications and send decision emails within one month of applying.

 
 
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Step 4:
Wait for notification of acceptance

Decision emails will be sent within a month of receiving each application. Accepted applicants will have two weeks to accept the offer and return necessary sign-up documents via an online form. Make sure to check your spam or junk folder to not miss the email from WEST-Center@arizona.edu.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

We accept interns on a rolling basis but expect most to complete their internship during the summer. If your internship would begin in summer, we recommend applying by May 15th, 2024.

  • Participants must be 18 years of age or older
  • Must have high school diploma or General Education Development (GED)
  • Must be a currently enrolled student (undergrad or graduate) from an accredited institution in the US
    • Community college
    • Technical college
    • Tribal college
    • University
  • Students must be US citizens, US nationals, or foreign nationals with a visa permitting permanent residence in the US. Students on temporary or student visas are not eligible to receive these stipends.
  • Students must be enrolled in their school throughout the course of their project (students that have already graduated from their program will not be considered).
  • The organization hosting you as a student intern must serve American Samoa, Arizona, California, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Hawai'i, and Nevada, including Native American Tribes and Indigenous communities in these areas. Students can work remotely outside this area if approved by the internship supervisor.

Yes, this is a paid opportunity. Accepted students will receive a stipend of $5,000.

Students will be required to complete orientation training prior to the start date of their internship and work a minimum of 180 hours, with the vast majority of this time being time spent at their internship organization. We expect most students to complete their experience over a summer, but they do have up to one year to complete after beginning their internship.

You can start counting hours towards your minimum requirement only after being accepted and onboarded by the WEST EJ Center team. 

Yes, students can work full-time or part-time and remotely, as determined by the student and the internship supervisor

No, it is not required to have prior experience in environmental and energy justice.

 

Priority will be given towards placing students in their home communities and/or communities identified as priority communities through EPA’s EJ Screen in American Samoa, Arizona, California, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Hawai'i, and Nevada, including Native American Tribes and Indigenous communities in these areas.

  • You can intern with any organization that is completing work in the environmental and/or energy justice space. Examples of organizations include but are not limited to non-profits, community-based organizations, and local, state and tribal governments. Examples of projects include exploring career paths in sustainability, assisting with writing grant applications, and creating social media posts about environmental justice efforts.
  • Check in with the WEST EJ Center if there is a for-profit organization that you might be interested in working with or if you are not sure about the status of a certain organization.
  • If you need help finding an organization to intern with, please contact the WEST EJ Center via e-mail: WESTEJ-Center@arizona.edu.

The final deliverables include a 250-500 word reflection detailing your internship experience, a survey for feedback on the program and a 3-5 min digital story presentation.

We expect to send out decision emails and agreements within a month of submission. Accepted applicants will have two weeks to accept the offer and return necessary sign-up documents via an online form.  If documents are not received during this time, alternate candidates will be selected.

No. You must receive a formal acceptance from our team and complete the onboarding process before your hours will count towards your internship requirement. Any hours completed before this will not count towards our program.

To learn the status of your application, you can reach out to the WEST EJ Center via e-mail at WESTEJ-Center@arizona.edu. It is recommended to check your spam or junk folder in case you receive any updates there.

Organizations can only host one intern at a time. Priority will be given to organizations who have never hosted an intern. Please reach out to us at  WESTEJ-Center@arizona.edu if you need help finding an organization that has not yet hosted an intern.